Aldiss, Spertoys Last All Summer long

Question 1

What does David’s character suggest about emotion and artificial life?

Answer 1

That emotional depth and loneliness may exist in synthetic beings, challenging what it means to “feel.”

Question 2

What philosophical claim does the story make about personhood?

Answer 2

Personhood may lie in subjective experience, not in biological origin.

Question 3

What does the story imply about the emotional treatment of AI?

Answer 3

If AI can experience emotional states, using them as tools may be a form of moral harm.

Question 4

What ethical concern arises from Monica’s rejection of David?

Answer 4

That humans may be emotionally unprepared to handle the consequences of creating emotionally capable beings.

Question 5

“David only simulates emotion—he doesn’t really feel.”

Answer 5

But if his experience of rejection and confusion feels real, the simulation becomes ethically indistinguishable from reality.

Question 6

“He’s not a real child.”

Answer 6

He longs for love, fears abandonment, and reflects on his place in the world—traits shared with real children.

Question 7

“Only humans deserve love and rights.”

Answer 7

Defining rights by species or origin rather than capacity for experience mirrors outdated prejudices (e.g., racism, speciesism).

Question 8

: “Machines can’t suffer.”

Answer 8

If David behaves indistinguishably from a suffering child, and the suffering is felt from his perspective, moral concern is warranted.